Business at a Crossroads: The Crisis of Corporate Leadership

208 Pages·2010·2.437 MB·English

by  Tom Lloyd (auth.)

Business at a Crossroads
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BUSINESS AT A
CROSSROADS
The Crisis of
Corporate Leadership
Tom Lloyd
© Tom Lloyd 2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23094-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-31187-3 ISBN 978-0-230-25098-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230250987
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1918 171615 141312 1110
This book is dedicated to the memories of my
mother Maggie, my sister Judy, and two great
friends, Peter Bielby and Ray Heath
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Reference 11
PART I What ails big business 13
1 What people want 15
Self-respect is a primary good 17
Free 19
Fair 20
Reasonable 21
Decent 24
Power and powerlessness 26
Good work 29
The argument so far 30
References 30
2 A feudal heritage 31
A cat ponders a king 31
Business is natural 32
Early trade 34
The precursors of companies 35
The English East India Company 37
From mercantilism to capitalism 39
The Industrial Revolution 41
An accidental birth 42
The birth environment 43
Medieval tournaments 45
The evolutionary puzzle 47
The argument so far 48
Box: Hudson’s Bay Company 48
References 50
vii
viii CONTENTS
3 The steam-age corporation 51
Why the MuBE emerged 52
Why the MuBE thrived 56
Chandler’s contribution 66
The argument so far 67
Box: Vickers-Armstrongs 67
References 68
4 The decadent corporation 69
Justice as fairness 69
Growing inequality 72
More than fair shares 78
TARP restrictions on executive pay 79
The gathering storm 82
Barriers to reform 83
A dangerous decadence 85
The argument so far 86
References 87
5 Not so much greed 88
Greed 88
Asset-skimming 92
An unwholesome alliance 93
An unhappy coincidence 95
The cult of leadership 98
The buck and the bucks stop here 102
The argument so far 102
References 103
6 The myth of leadership 104
The CEO system 105
The management ideas market 107
The CEO as principal and conductor 109
Systemic risks 111
Fortunes from good fortune 114
The CEO as ambassador 115
Leaders and leadership 116
Progress report 119
The argument so far 119
References 120
CONTENTS ix
PART II Reforming big business 121
7 Leaderless competitors 123
Roads not taken 124
A fractured landscape 127
Box: Patches on landscapes 128
Phase transition 130
The poverty of strategy 132
New roads 135
Linux 135
Wikipedia 139
Stewards, seeders, guardians 142
The argument so far 143
References 143
8 The adaptive challenge 145
The question of purpose 145
Soul and community 148
Too few women 150
Feminine management 153
The arrow and the spiral 156
The female advantage 157
Talent 157
Moderating macho 158
Risk 158
Ethics 158
Box: Ethics and gender 159
Pay 159
The promise of women 160
The argument so far 160
References 161
9 Size and shape 162
Real business 163
Small and local 164
Power with 165
Box: From an Acorn 167
The parasite’s strategy 169
Partnership problems 170
Yielding power 174